a day in the life of a baby boomer - please give some info

iolanthe07

I am a boomer (born 1946) and about to retire on a pension. My income will go down from around £45K to around £25K. I have absolutely no debts, though, so I think I'll manage OK.

lostinrates

My father and my sibling are both boomers by the dates set out. My mother is too old.

Braveheart100

I've just posted this on another thread. Forgive me for repetition. It's about my M-I-L. She was born in 1941 so I suppose strictly speaking she is not a BB - but she certainly thinks like one imho.

Firstly, my BB M-I-L fills me with despair.

In the boom she bought a buy-to-let in Cardiff bay. The flat went up and up and up in price and she used it as a cash machine - every few years she extended her mortgage by tens of thousands of pounds. This supplemented her pension and money she got from part time work. Like so many in her age group it was holiday, holiday, holiday. At 65 she decided to do a degree - more Mewing, then a masters - more Mewing.

Then crash, crash, crash. She did manage to sell her flat but there was no equity left in it by then and she just covered her costs.

Now she is 70 and I have just had to spend the holidays listening to her moaning. She is lucky enough to have a home (no mortgage) and a small but reasonable pension but she has barely no savings. She feels like she is ENTITLED to sooooo much more. She thinks she should be able to go on holiday every month, eat out at least once a week, drive everywhere without regard for petrol costs, blah,blah,blah

I despair! How did that generation get so spoilt? Where does this sense of entitlement come from?

Linton

Braveheart100 wrote: »

......
she has barely no savings. She feels like she is ENTITLED to sooooo much more. She thinks she should be able to go on holiday every month, eat out at least once a week, drive everywhere without regard for petrol costs, blah,blah,blah
....

Just add "and be able to afford to buy a 3-4 bedroomed house in a nice area" and she sounds like some of the younger ones on this forum.

Davesnave

The-mouth-of-the-south wrote: »

I am intrested in the life of how baby boomers are currently living at the moment. for example how many homes do you own, do you have cash in bank, kids, health, retired, lifestyle etc

my parents are boomers, they are well off in that they own a nice home, have cash in bank, car, no debt, good pensions but they dont really go anywhere other than to tescos using there free bus pass.

Really intrested to hear some baby boomers lifestyle stories.

I'm not going into great detail, but I'd say that there is no such thing as a stereoypical Boomer, or if there is, then I'm probably not it.

I worked in education and earned a reasonable pension, but like a lot of my generation, I ended up caring for an elderly parent and cut my hours towards the end to suit, so it isn't enough to live well on. My DW was variously full time, part time and SAHM, but has no pension, other than the state one, when she's 66, which is a long way off.

When I was free from commitments and 'retired' we looked at the nice, paid-for semi we had and thought: "Knickers to staying here, enjoying 25 years of Groundhog Day!" so we sold up, went into rented and looked around for something more interesting.

That 'something' came along in about 6 months. It's a 5 acre smallholding which was in a rather uncared for state, with an owner desperate to be somewhere else, so we got a pretty decent deal.

After 18 months here we've reinstated the place as a working smallholding and in the next few months we'll be opening a small business here. It won't make much money, but it'll reduce our tax bill, and in 3 years I'll be an OAP anyway. At that point we should have re-modelled the house, so then we'll decide whether to stay on, or cash-up and do something easier.

One thing that might keep us here is if we go into a farmers' power generation scheme, which will pay back as much as another pension, govt. backed & index-linked for the next 25years. That's a bit tempting. Also, if one plans to live a long time, it's probably best to keep very active. I can't see the price of food and fuel becoming anything other than more expensive in the future, so producing both looks pretty good from where I'm sitting.

Has it been easy for Boomers? I think people make their own luck, but discovering MSE helped me a lot. Frankly, I worked far too hard for the Man in my earlier years to think properly about money, which was a big mistake. I should have made time.

zygurat789

The baby boom was caused by the end of the war so that everyone could get on with their lives and make up for lost time. This resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of births in 45,46 & 47 and not so dramatic up to 1950. After that it's just media phraseology.
Well after seeing house prices double before we bought and then having to pay 15% mortgage interest (that would increase the average current mortgage repayment by three times) we're still here. Retired, no mortgage and a bit of pension. I worked hard for what I've got but now I look round at the ignorant, spoilt and selfish posters who we see on this site who consider they're entitled to the fruits of all my efforts and wonder was it all worth it

abaxas

The boomer issue is a simple one.

Prior to that 'generation' people assumed they had to contribute to society, now people assume (wrongly) that once they retire they don't have to.

If people don't want to contribute, I'm not sure the rest of us will ultimately be willing to pay for them.

2010

Ha the great life of being a BB.

Working hard, long hours for thirty odd years and paying 15% mortgage rates, not to mention a hefty chunk of your wages towards your pension.

This is how most BB have got where they are now.

No one GAVE them it

---

they worked for their home, pension and current lifestyle.

Unlike the "have now pay later" brigade of today.

Davesnave

abaxas wrote: »

The boomer issue is a simple one.

Prior to that 'generation' people assumed they had to contribute to society, now people assume (wrongly) that once they retire they don't have to.

If people don't want to contribute, I'm not sure the rest of us will ultimately be willing to pay for them.

Excuse me, but if you came to live in this village, you'd soon notice it's the Boomers running all the extras that make living in a community more lively & interesting. Others are away much of the day, earning their living. I don't imagine this place is somehow unique.

Or is that not what you meant?

Come to think of it, what did you mean?

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Excuse me, but if you came to live in this village, you'd soon notice it's the Boomers running all the extras that make living in a community more lively & interesting. Others are away much of the day, earning their living. I don't imagine this place is somehow unique.

Or is that not what you meant?

Come to think of it, what did you mean?

Boomers and those older in my experience. Partly though, because they are unwilling to relinquish some ''responsibilities''. The battle was being waged when I left and the younger middle aged were steaming through, not least because one of the leading boomer households moved, were steaming through and taking over and mucking it up.

In my village ''she in charge'' is in her 80s and fit and spry, and has invited me to call her by her first name. I have offered to launder tea towels for the village hall. And make tea/coffee. And of anything other than arrange flowers. It will be interesting to see if I'm considered to have gravitas enough to make me worthy of trusting with the tea towels.